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Space  Traveling  Humans are going to Mars. We don’t know exactly when, who it will be, or exactly what spacecraft will be the first to make the journey, but with several space-faring nations setting their sights firmly on the red planet, it’s going to happen sooner rather than later. To make that goal a reality, groups like NASA are going to need the help of companies like Lockheed Martin, and the latter  just released  its newest vision for what an orbiting Mars space station and reusable lander. The station, which is built with our current scientific understanding of Mars in mind, features a pair of what Lockheed Martin is calling “MADVs,” or Mars Ascent/Descent Vehicles. Those vehicles function as landers to ferry astronauts to and from the surface of the planet, with the space station itself acting as a “base camp.” “Sending humans to Mars has always been a part of science fiction, but today we have the capability to make it a reality,” Lisa Callahan, vice p...

Bitcoin  Yesterday  a video teaser  from blockchain technology company Blockstream created  waves of excitement  among enthusiasts of both cryptocurrencies and space. Most participants speculated that Blockstream was about to implement the idea, promoted by Bitcoin developer Jeff Garzik (among others), of a satellite system that streams the Bitcoin blockchain to the whole planet from space. The speculations were, indeed, correct. Today, the company is announcing  Blockstream Satellite , a new service that broadcasts real-time Bitcoin blockchain data from satellites in space to almost everyone on the planet. Blockstream Satellite covers across two-thirds of the Earth’s land mass and, according to the company, additional coverage areas will soon come online to reach almost every person on the planet by the end of the year. “Bitcoin is a powerful and transformative internet native digital money that has blazed a trail of disruption, with its full potential...

Zhukovskiy (Sputnik) Jul 21, 2017 Russia will supply the largest ever number of space rocket engines to the United States in 2017 within the framework of the previous agreements, head of the Russia's NPO Energomash corporation Igor Arbuzov said on Wednesday. In 2014, the US Congress strictly limited future purchases of Russian RD-180 engines used in Atlas launch vehicles since 2000 at a time when it imposed economic sanctions on Russia over Moscow's alleged interference in Ukraine's domestic affairs. In June 2016, US Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain, who was the 2008 Republican presidential candidate, attempted to cut off any further purchase of the Russian engines, proposing US companies compete to provide the United States with a reliable, domestic space launch platform. "The largest volume of supplies is intended for this year: 11 RD-180 engines for the US Atlas V rockets and four RD-181 engines for the US Antares rockets," Arbuzov told reporters...

Iran’s minister of information and communications technology says the country plans to send a new domestically-manufactured satellite into space by  the end of the current Iranian calendar year (ending on March 20, 2017). Mahmoud Vaezi said on Wednesday that the probe called Sharif Sat would be put into orbit by the end of the year, adding that Iran planned to send two more satellites into space by the end of the next Iranian calendar year (which ends on March 20, 2018). The three satellites have been manufactured by young Iranian experts in research centers at the country’s universities, the minister said. He also said that Iran was about to sign a contract with a Russian company on the manufacture of a remote-sensing satellite. “The contract is in final stages. The letter of credit to finance the contract has also been finalized and the work will begin within the next two or three weeks,” Vaezi said. The minister also said th...